The Wehrmacht Retreats

Fighting a Lost War, 1943

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Last edited by ImportBot
February 17, 2024 | History

The Wehrmacht Retreats

Fighting a Lost War, 1943

  • 3 Want to read

Throughout 1943, the German army, heirs to a military tradition that demanded and perfected relentless offensive operations, succumbed to the realities of its own overreach and the demands of twentieth-century industrialized warfare. In his new study, prizewinning author Robert Citino chronicles this weakening Wehrmacht, now fighting desperately on the defensive but still remarkably dangerous and lethal.

Drawing on his impeccable command of German-language sources, Citino offers fresh, vivid, and detailed treatments of key campaigns during this fateful year: the Allied landings in North Africa, General von Manstein’s great counterstroke in front of Kharkov, the German attack at Kasserine Pass, the titanic engagement of tanks and men at Kursk, the Soviet counteroffensives at Orel and Belgorod, and the Allied landings in Sicily and Italy. Through these events, he reveals how a military establishment historically configured for violent aggression reacted when the tables were turned; how German commanders viewed their newest enemy, the U.S. Army, after brutal fighting against the British and Soviets; and why, despite their superiority in materiel and manpower, the Allies were unable to turn 1943 into a much more decisive year.

Applying the keen operational analysis for which he is so highly regarded, Citino contends that virtually every flawed German decision—to defend Tunis, to attack at Kursk and then call off the offensive, to abandon Sicily, to defend Italy high up the boot and then down much closer to the toe—had strong supporters among the army’s officer corps. He looks at all of these engagements from the perspective of each combatant nation and also establishes beyond a shadow of a doubt the synergistic interplay between the fronts.

Ultimately, Citino produces a grim portrait of the German officer corps, dispelling the longstanding tendency to blame every bad decision on Hitler. Filled with telling vignettes and sharp portraits and copiously documented, The Wehrmacht Retreats is a dramatic and fast-paced narrative that will engage military historians and general readers alike.

Publish Date
Language
English

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Edition Availability
Cover of: La Wehrmacht se retira
La Wehrmacht se retira: Luchando una guerra perdida, 1943
2014, Platea
in Spanish - 1st ed.
Cover of: The Wehrmacht Retreats
The Wehrmacht Retreats: Fighting a Lost War, 1943
2012, University Press of Kansas
in English

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Book Details


Table of Contents

The last victory? the race to Tunis
Manstein, the Battle of Kharkov, and the limits of command
The limits of fighting power: triumph and disaster in Tunisia, 1943
The Battle of Kursk: a reassessment
Smashing the Axis: Operation Husky and the Sicilian Campaign
Manstein's war: Bewegungskrieg in the east, July-December 1943
Kesselring's war: Italy, 1943
Conclusion: fighting a lost war.

Edition Notes

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Published in
Lawrence, Kan
Series
Modern war studies

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
940.54/1343
Library of Congress
D757 .C59 2012, D757.C59 2012

The Physical Object

Pagination
p. cm.

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL25054772M
ISBN 13
9780700618262
LCCN
2011040436
OCLC/WorldCat
755904583

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History

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February 17, 2024 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
December 22, 2022 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
December 12, 2022 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
October 28, 2022 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
October 23, 2011 Created by LC Bot Imported from Library of Congress MARC record